Playing with Family History

I don't know if I'm into family history because I'm a scrapbooker, or if I'm a scrapbooker because I'm fascinated by family history.

The point here is that I can be a bit sentimental.

Take, for instance, my determination to recompile my great-grandparents' family stories and poetry and make it available to my extended family in a more manageable form. I think the stories about covered wagons coming up to Michigan from Ohio are awesome and fully deserving of surviving another generation or two.

There's also my sudden interest in the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion, Fifth Armored Division, of World War II. My grandfather was part of "A" Company. I know this because of a rather roughed up old book that somehow managed to survive a house fire in the late 70s/early 80s. The book is missing it's cover, the first 14 pages, and who knows how many pages at the rear. What it isn't missing is the brief mention of my Grandfather."It was while we were here that first actual contact between men of "A" Company and the enemy took place. This happened August 5, 1944 when Lt. Devine, Cpl. Cwiklowski, and Pvt. Sherman encountered an enemy road block while out on reconnaissance. The Germans opened fire with machine guns and the fire was returned by Lt. Devine's party long enough to determine the size of the enemy force, then they returned to the Company with the information." ~ History of "A" Company

This passage appears on p. 94 of that old book. The book no one knows the title of but would love to find in its complete form.

As you can see, this passage also appeared in the "History of 'A' Company" on the Fifth Armored Division's website. After doing a bit more digging around there, I think I've deduced the battalion he served in: 628th Tank Destroyer.

I also thought I found a copy of the book that had been so nearly destroyed in Grandma's house fire. I was wrong. It's not the same. Still pretty cool, but not quite right.